New Wineskins

During my recently completed 30-day sabbatical I had lots of time to read, to think, and to ruminate on ideas. Going into the sabbatical I had been thinking about new wine and new wineskins. If the Lord is producing new wine, what would new wineskins look like in our era of ministry in sport? Some thoughts, somewhat scattered to be sure, follow. This is a work in progress.

The reading, and in some cases reading again, of these books inform the thought below. Rare Leadership by Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder. The Passion Generation by Grant Skeldon. Perils of Leadership by Kenneth Prior. The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George G. Hunter III. I found each of these to be of great value.





New wine is: dynamic, powerful, delicious, and very desirable. Its dynamism and power is what makes old wineskins inappropriate, the skins burst and the wine is wasted. Its flavor and desirability is what gives it value. New wine demands new wineskins. New wine frees the spirit, instead of controlling the flesh.

New wineskins, are they containers for new wine? No, that is what a vat is. Rather, wineskins are delivery systems for wine contained in vats. New wine requires new delivery systems. What might define or characterize those delivery systems?

I believe new wineskins will value: relationship over information, identity over performance, identity over conformity, identity over accountability, love over law, mercy over judgment, grace over earning, who over what, why over how, and spirit over flesh. It is relational, rather than transactional.

Believers full of new wine will serve others by encouraging them to grow in relationship with Jesus and His church, emphasizing: belonging, identity, and joy. This is discipleship for now and coming years.

• Build groups for relationships that love and form identity.
• Create events to awaken hunger and thirst for belonging, identity, and joy.
• Recruit people with strong emotional intelligence (more than academic or technical skills) to lead others into belonging, identity, and joy.
• New wineskins will not be defined nor limited by geography.
• New wineskins will build community with the strong and the weak being together.
• New wineskins will enable people to love and serve all those in their communities.
• New wineskins are directed toward those who hunger and thirst for the new wine.
• New wineskins are delivery systems for God’s life to hungry souls.

Discipleship and mentorship of new wine will require a different sort of wineskin than in the past.

• Instead of meetings over coffee simply to deliver information; it will also require time spent together in the mentor’s daily activity (see the list below).
• Less like a classroom ;more like a laboratory.
• Less like an instructor with a student; more like a craftsman with an apprentice.
• I will invite mentees into my life’s normal activity:
• Daily life on campus, in area schools, at practices.
• Visits to hospitals, surgery centers, emergency rooms, funerals.
• Game day preparations, chapel talks, service in locker rooms.
• Small group meetings with coaches, athletes, support staff.
• Training events, staff meetings, conferences.
• Study retreats, sabbath days.
• Mentoring appointments, discipleship groups.
• International travel to serve, train, and develop relationships.
• Meals in our home.

One action point for me was to work with three young people (19-23 years old) to develop a series of discussions on how Jesus gives people belonging, identity, and joy as described in the Gospel of Mark. I identified stories containing each of those characteristics in eighteen separate passages in Mark’s Gospel. One female golfer, a female basketball player, and a male basketball player will collaborate with me in composing discussion questions and we’ll test it with a group next semester.

Certainly none of these ideas are revolutionary or even new to most of us. I do believe that they are worthy of emphasis, important to develop, and essential to employ. If the Lord is producing new wine in the souls of His followers, and I believe He is, we must find and develop delivery systems sufficient for the precious, delicious, dynamic, valuable, and powerful new wine. To do so will be transformational. To fail will be tragic.